Coconut oil how-to and DIY articles once again dominated our top Coconut Health stories in 2013. This reflects a growing trend where many more people know and understand the health benefits of coconut oil, and are looking for ways to incorporate it into their daily lives. Here are the top 10 most-read Coconut Health stories published in 2013:
- Homemade Coconut Oil Sunscreen Recipe
- Get Off Your Thyroid Medication And Start Consuming Coconut Oil
- Easy Coconut Oil Sugar Scrub Recipes
- Oil Pulling Goes Mainstream – Health Benefits Cannot be Denied
- How To Use Coconut Flour
- How to make your own Raw Honey Coconut Oil Face Mask
- Coconut Oil Gave my Grandma Back to Us!
- Turmeric in Coconut Oil Could be Acne Remedy
- How to Use Coconut Oil for Seasoning Cast Iron Pans and Conditioning Wooden Cutting Boards
- Coconut Oil Reverses Dementia in an 85 Year Old Man at 35 days
As far as new research published on coconut oil, there were several studies published in 2013 regarding coconut oil’s powerful effects on skin health. See:
- Turmeric in Coconut Oil Could be Acne Remedy (made our top 10 list)
- Study: Coconut Oil Fatty Acids have Bactericidal and Anti-inflammatory Activities Against Acne
- Virgin Coconut Oil Beats Mineral Oil for Skin Health in New Study on Dermatitis
- Study: Topical Coconut Mixture a Better Treatment for Wounds and Bacterial Infections
We continued to document remarkable stories in 2013 regarding coconut oil’s ability to help, and even reverse, Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia, as well as other neurological diseases like Parkinson’s. See:
- Coconut Oil Gave my Grandma Back to Us! (made our top 10 list)
- Coconut Oil Reverses Dementia in an 85 Year Old Man at 35 days (made our top 10 list)
- Coconut Oil Lifts Brain Fog and Stops Memory Loss for 65 Year Old Women
- Coconut Oil Improves Life of 74 Year Old Man with Parkinson’s
- Film to be Made of Father’s Recovery from Alzheimer’s with Coconut Oil
- Coconut Oil Offers Hope for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS
2013 might also be the year that those in the medical community could no longer deny the effect of coconut oil on Alzheimer’s Disease and other neurological problems. A study published in 2013 by the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland might be one of the first of many studies we can expect to see in the future, looking for ways to develop drugs that mimic the effects of coconut oil. The title of the study is “Coconut Oil Attenuates the Effects of Amyloid- on Cortical Neurons In Vitro.” Rather than study the dietary effects of coconut oil, or the ketogenic diet, on neurodegenerative diseases, this was actually an in vitro study that examined “rodent cortical neurons exposed to AB peptide” and virgin coconut oil, most likely in a petri dish or beaker, inside of a laboratory. Read more about the study here.
A much more promising study on coconut oil and Alzheimer’s began in 2013 at the University of South Florida’s Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute. Since coconut oil cannot be patented like drugs can, there is no interest from the medical community to fund these types of studies, so the Byrd Alzheimer’s study is being funded completely through private funds. They have a study currently in progress where they enrolled 65 individuals with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s to measure the effects of coconut oil, versus a placebo, on the disease. We should see the results of their study in 2014.
This interest in studying coconut oil also corresponds with quite a few studies published regarding the remarkable effects of the Ketogenic Diet in 2013, a diet originally developed at John Hopkins Hospital in the 1920s to cure epilepsy in children who did not respond to drugs. It is a high fat, low carbohydrate diet. Coconut oil is a key ingredient in a ketogenic diet, due to the ketone effects of the medium chain fatty acids found in coconut oil. Some of the research we highlighted in 2013 regarding the ketogenic diet:
- Beyond Weight Loss: A Review of the Therapeutic Uses of Ketogenic Diets
- Study: Ketogenic Diet and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Stops Cancer
- The Benefits of a Ketogenic Diet and its Role in Cancer Treatment
- Is the Ketogenic Diet the Cure for Multiple Diseases?
- Using the Ketogenic Diet to Heal Brain Tumors
And lastly, another study done in 2013 confirmed that the wet-milling traditional way of producing coconut oil produces the highest levels of antioxidants in Virgin Coconut Oil. A study published in Food and Function, of the Royal Society of Chemistry, showed once again that the highest amounts of antioxidants in coconut oil are found in virgin coconut oils produced by the wet-milling process. The study was conducted in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Kerala in India. You can read more about this study here.
Health Impact News will continue to publish BOTH testimonials and published research regarding coconut oil and other coconut health issues in 2014. All of the peer-reviewed research is also logged at CoconutOil.com, and there is a special Facebook Page just for Coconut Health here.
About the authors: Unlike many people who write about coconut oil by simply reading about it, Brian and Marianita Shilhavy actually lived in a coconut producing area of the Philippines for several years. Marianita Jader Shilhavy grew up on a coconut plantation in the Philippines and in a culture that consumed significant amounts of coconut fat in their diet. She later went on to earn her degree in nutrition and worked as a nutritionist in the Philippines. Brian Shilhavy also lived in the Philippines for several years with Marianita and their 3 children observing firsthand the differences between the diet and health of the younger generation and those of Marianita’s parents’ generation still consuming a traditional diet. This led to years of studying Philippine nutrition and dietary patterns first hand while living in a rural farming community in the Philippines. They are authors of the best-selling book: Virgin Coconut Oil: How it has changed people’s lives and how it can change yours!
Virgin Coconut Oil:
How it has changed people’s lives and how it can change yours!
Includes 85 recipes – Free shipping available!
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